How sad that it takes a film to make the horror of The Great Depression real. Ron Howard, one of our best storytellers, does exactly that in Cinderella Man. Fifteen million unemployed sounds like a lot until you see Hooverville, the shack city erected in Central Park. Stock market collapse sounds bad until you see Renee Zellwegger, as James J. Braddock's wife, run outside their basement hovel to cry over their youngest boy's fever and cough. She can do nothing for him, they have no heat and no access to medical care.
Back then, less than three generations ago, there was no health care for the poor, nothing between the power company and the impoverished family, nothing to protect families from being thrown into the street. The homeless were everywhere, the social fabric was coming apart from the strain of too great a number of disenfranchised.
Sounds familiar doesn't it? There isn't a controlled intersection in this city without a beggar with a sign. More than a third of the population use the emergency room as their doctor's office. And it's only going to get worse. As oil prices continue to rise and the economy reacts with inflation or stagflation or recession or depression those on the edge will be pushed over into poverty and homelessness. And we have no system to deal with it.
As long as Rupert Murdoch and the hacks at Fox continue to frame the discussion, we can expect the response from the government to be minimal to nonexistent. The gap between the rich and the rest of us grows daily, the chasm between the rich and the poor widens with each passing hour. The minimum wage allows a family of three to remain above the poverty level but God forbid they have a second child; it means poverty. While the average Congressman's salary has gone up from $135,000 to $162,000 (that is almost $78.00 per hour, a true gross times the minimum wage) since the last time the minimum wage was hiked, the chance of raising the minimum wage to poverty level is as likely as a family of four moving from homelessness to a cheap apartment.
The minimum wage is currently $5.15 an hour; that's about $900 a month. If you spend a third of that on shelter you are left with $600 a month to feed a family of four. That works out to about $1.67 per meal per person. And that leaves no money for clothing, school supplies, medicine or birthday cakes. Compare that $1.67 with the $73 dollars a person per meal the average Congressman can spend. But then Congressmen eat for free when they're working, so it's not really a fair comparison.
Article comments
1 - MK
Actually, no, it doesn't sound familiar. Today, Braddock could have found a job other than on the docks, his family would have food stamps or other aid, he could take his child to any hospital and receive health care and he would receive aid in housing or free housing.
Our economy is solid, unemployment is at full employment levels.
2 - El Bicho
I'm amazed this film didn't perfrom better, but it should be rereleased at this time. The country could use it.
3 - Ismail - India
Cinderella Man!! I don't think words are enough to praise the people who have played in this movie... Hats off.. to all the people associated with this movie.. The attachment of a father to his children.. Risking his own life to feed his children... Great movie and plz watch it if u get the time...